I was among 17 students chosen as finalists to participate in the Johns Hopkins Summer Internship Program through the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (1% acceptance rate). This summer internship program offered an invaluable opportunity for experiential learning through research training and professional development. Throughout the internship, I networked with Johns Hopkins and NIH faculty within academic medicine to explore the specialty of pulmonary and critical care medicine. Additionally, the program provided enrichment activities, including weekly journal article presentations, lab meetings, ethic discussions, formal presentations, and shadowing opportunities. I rounded with residents and attendings in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital. I was also invited to shadow a neurologist and director of the Epilepsy center at the University of Maryland. 

 

I gained an appreciation for basic science research and develop a more profound understanding of cellular and immunological research. I was assigned to a Johns Hopkins faculty lab where I developed experimental designs, hypothesis, and data for my summer research project. My project is titled “Macrophage Pro-inflammatory Response is Attenuated by Treatment with Elexacaftor/Tezacaftor/Ivacaftor (ETI)”. The objective was to determine the role ETI plays in differential macrophage immune response to bacterial infection in people with cystic fibrosis (PwCF). Our main goal was to evaluate if ETI treatment reduces chronic bacterial infection rates, modulates the immune response and improves the quality of life of PwCF. The research methodology consisted of both in vitro and in vivo models: human monocyte cell line and bronchoalveolar lavage samples from lung transplant recipients (LTR). Both samples were treated or not with ETI and later stimulated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PsA), a common bacterial infection in PwCF. Flow cytometry was performed to statistically analyze the differential immune response between the experimental (treated) and control (untreated) groups. Data analysis was conducting with Flow Jo, R, Excel, and Prism.

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During a journal club meeting I presented an article titled "Elexacaftor/Tezacaftor/Ivacaftor corrects monocyte microbicidal deficiency in cystic fibrosis" by Dr. Luca Cavinato. At the internship's conclusion, I presented research posters at the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine symposium and at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine C.A.R.E.S Symposium. I learned extensive presentation skills, from designing compelling visuals to layered story-telling for clear explanations. At the culmination of the program, my PI (Dr. Franco D'Alessio) and post-doctoral mentor (Dr. Noel Britton) formally invited me to return next summer to continue my work on this ongoing grant.